The 46th Chromosome
by Neemers
Summary: A gender-swap story.
1. Through Rose tinted Glasses

Skye settled back farther into the couch, content to simply watch the world go by for once instead of training. After going through one of Logan's sessions, she was content to lounge around until she could feel her legs again. That woman was insane, especially during the second week of every month, but she was also the best there was.  
  
If her name wasn't bad enough, she also had to deal with her unimpressive physique. No matter how hard she worked out, she still kept the same whip- thin, unmuscular shape. She'd cut her hair short in an attempt to look less girlish and for practical reasons, but it still wasn't enough. There were times when she wanted to strangle whoever had named her Skye Summers on top of that. She knew everyone called her Summer Sky behind her back, and she hated it.  
  
She glanced over at Eva, who was teasing Kirsa where they were sitting on the couch, throwing popcorn at each other. Within moments Kirsa was trying to pull out one of Eva's pom-pom pigtails while Eva tried to stuff popcorn down Kirsa's shirt. Eva dressed in baggy, shapeless, tomboy clothing that fit her tomboyishness pefectly while Kirsa tried to stay in fashion, possibly in an attempt to fit in despite her furry looks. Sometimes Skye wondered if they should have been born as boys. She knew she wished that at times, until she thought of Jean. If she and Jean were both boys... well, that just didn't bear thinking about. As it was, the only time she was glad of her need to always wear sunglasses was when she could watch Jean without anyone noticing.  
  
Kirsa stopped playing with Eva when Kit walked into the room. Once again, he was dressed just a little nicer than most boys his age. There were times when Skye wondered if Kirsa was interested in him as a boyfriend, or whether she was just using Kit to practice flirting on. With Kirsa, it was impossible to tell. In an instant, the German mutant was off the couch and styling herself in front of Kit.  
  
"So, what do you think of my new look?" she asked. Skye tuned Kit out as he started rambling off styling tips. Kit started berating Kirsa for just leaving her hair straight down her back instead of styling it again, while Kirsa responded by teasing Kit about his ponytail. Kit had been at the Institute for nearly a month before Skye had realized that he wasn't gay, and that was only because she'd overheard Kit drooling over Lana.  
  
At the thought of Lana, Skye's jaw clenched up. She didn't know what it was about the girl, but Skye couldn't stand her. Kit's dreaming made it even worse. Kit wasn't exactly the most street-wise guy in the world, and Skye always felt like she had to look out for him.  
  
When Bobbi and Judah walked into the room, arguing about the value of ice sculptures versus fireworks, Skye just groaned and tired to bury herself deeper in the couch. She just hoped they didn't try to put on a demonstration again. Cleaning up soggy, scorched carpet once had been more than enough. As the argument stated escalating, Skye realized that she'd have no such luck. Somehow, she found the energy to stumble to her feet and stiffly walk over to the new recruits. It took a few moments for them to notice their slightly mussed leader glaring at them, but when they did notice, they stopped the argument. For once Skye was glad of the horror stories Tobin told about Skye's pms-ing. That boy was infuriating, especially with his inappropriately-placed boomers, but there were times when he was helpful.  
  
Skye continued on, going outside in an attempt to get away from everyone long enough to be able to move without regretting it. Maybe, if she was lucky, the sun would relax her aching muscles. She nodded to Professor Charlene on her way out. Some of the new recruits still looked at the professor oddly, but Skye had gotten used to the bald woman years ago. She was glad her mutation hadn't made her go bald. Every year for her birthday and for Christmas, someone would get her a wig that she ended up not wearing, and every year, Kirsa would manage to have it decorating the statue by the front door within a few days.  
  
Skye stumbled outside, blinking at the sudden brightness that came though her glasses. Ronnie was laying on his stomach in wolf form, lounging in the sun. After a few moments, he shifted back to human form so he could roll over on his back without any wolf-whistles from Bobbi, who'd just rushed by Skye in her effort to get back outside to start up a water fight, though Skye suspected Bobbi would be using more snow than water. Bobbi beckoned Judah over, and Skye suspected she'd have to clean up their mess again. Those two were always up to something. If it wasn't for their different races, they could have passed as twins, even down to the identical bobbed haircuts and twin maniac smiles. ____________________________________________________________________________ ______ Reviews are always appreciated. 


	2. Red Week

Skye had managed to lounge in the grass unmolested for about five minutes before Jamie wandered over to talk to her. With how gentle Jamie was, she wouldn't have been a problem, until she stumbled. Jamie fell, rolled, ad half a dozen of her landed on Skye. Skye patiently waited for Jamie to pick herselves up, too tired to move.  
  
It only took Jamie a moment of apologizing to realize that Skye hadn't moved the entire time. She stood still for a moment, then turned around to run off. She tripped over the same rock on her way back and duped herself, so nine copies of her ran off in all directions, calling to the others in an eerie tandem, "Guys! Guys! I think Skye's dead and we did it and we're so sooorrryyyy!" The same phrase was repeated over and over again, staying in synch. Skye struggled to push herself up before the Jamies returned and the questions began. After a few attempts, she managed to do so.  
  
A few minutes later the Jamies returned, dragging others behind them and repeating the same chant, but they were finally somewhat out of synch. The Jamies paused when they saw Skye sitting up, then buried him in a wave that made them triple in number, all babbling how happy they were to see that they hadn't killed Skye. A few minutes and many bruises later, the mutants standing around say that Skye wasn't moving anytime soon and started pulling the Jamies off of her.  
  
"What happened?" Bobbi asked. For a moment, Skye considered not answering, since she knew whatever Bobbi knew would be spread throughout the rest of the Institute in under five minutes. Unfortunately, not answering would just lead Bobbi to rampant speculation.  
  
After a few moments, Skye decided to give the short answer. "Training session with Logan."  
  
"So? She's not that bad," Ronnie answered. Skye looked at Ronnie in disgust. Ronnie took to the DR sessions rapidly, easily mastering skills that had taken Skye years of practice to learn. She hoped the Scot never picked up on her jealousy.  
  
"It's Red Week," Skye declared. From the way the others were shifting around, she realized that they hadn't been keeping track. Skye had lived at the Institute for long enough to know that keeping track of that was the better part of wisdom.  
  
Red Week was when Logan's 'certain time of the month' rolled around. It was called red because of the biologicla cycle, Logan's temper, and how much blood anyone who crossed her then was likely to lose. Bobbi and Judah paled, then ran off. Skye groaned as he realized that they had probably set some kind of trap for Logan that would put her in an even worse mood during the DR session tomorrow. The one good thing about Red Week was that it always let Skye get a good idea of just how much endurance everyone had and how well they handled dangerous situations when they were worried for their lives. Skye had been around Logan long enough to realize that she'd never actually eviscerate her students, but she saw no reason to tell the others that. Right now Logan was angry enough as it was. No need to make herself into a target by destroying one of Logan's favorite teaching tools.  
  
Jean and Kit were among those that the Jamies had brought to see the dead Skye. They helped her up, and though Skye would have liked the chance to be close to Jean, she chose to stand on her own. She was the leader of this team. She already got enough flak because she was a girl, and she didn't need to add weakling to that list. Jean cast a worried look at Skye. After a moment she realized what the problem was and tightened her mental shields so he couldn't overhear her pain.  
  
Jean wandered off and Skye watched him as he went. It was times like this that she wished gender-roles were reveresed so she could ask Jean out. Jean was handsome, but Skye remembered the kind boy who'd helped her around the Institute before she got her glasses. She remembered the kind boy who had listened as she spilled out what Mr. Winters had done to her and taught her that it was ok to trust boys. Skye knew that she trusted Jean implicitly, and always would. The telepath was well-built and a little slender, but his real selling-point as far as looks went was his wild mane of red hair. Most guys who had hair that long wore it in ponytails, but Jean left his loose most of the time. Unfortunately, Jean was more interested in Dunya, the head cheerleader, than Skye.  
  
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	3. The Other Side

Lana tried to avoid wrinkling her nose as Toby walked by. Normally, the froggish girl smelled like an open Dumpster, but ever since she'd gotten on her perfume kick she smelled like an open Dumpster right outside an exploded perfume factory. She and the rest of the Sisterhood had tried everything from baths to exotic soaks to mud baths to shoving her in a bag of chinchilla bath powder. Nothing made even the slightest difference, and trying to force the issue too far just got a slimeball hocked at you.  
  
Pietrina walked in after Toby, eyeing Lana with a look in her eye that promised trouble to come. Pietrina loved giving makeovers, and seldom if ever took no for an answer. At one point it had been simple enough to just sneak out when Pietrina was trying to decide between two products, but that had changed when Pietrina's brother, Warren, had come. After he'd finished trying to send his sister to the morgue, they'd made up and he'd introduced his sister to the more creative uses of duct tape. As far as Lana could tell, it was impossible to escape one of Pietrina's facials when taped to the ceiling. Maybe if she just ignored Pietrina for long enough she'd go away.  
  
Pietrina was the main reason Lana actually took the time to look decent. The moment she started looking the slightest bit raggedy Pietrina called a fashion emergency and gave Lana one of her speed-jobs. Having Pietrina brush through and style her hair in less than ten seconds tended to be painful, not to mention getting friction burns from the speed Pietrina used when applying make-up. Pietrina finally noticed Toby and smiled a predatory smile. Lana quietly sighed, knowing she was off the hook. Pietrina would spend the rest of the day trying to cure Toby's scent problem again, probably spending about half the time chasing Toby down and pulling her out of various hiding places. Better Toby than her.  
  
Freddi came downstairs and started heading for the kitchen, but stopped when she saw Pietrina. Past experience had taught her that it was better to wait a few minutes before going to get something to eat instead of listening to Pietrina lecture her for nearly an hour on proper dieting techniques. After pausing for a few minutes, she continued on to the kitchen anyway and got out the celery sticks. That was the only thing she could eat in front of Pietrina without getting a lecture. Lana just wondered how long it would be before Pietrina noticed the peanut butter jars hidden in strategic positions throughout most of the house.  
  
Freddi seemed to have slimmed down since she'd come to live with the Sisterhood, but Lana was unsure of how much of that was due to her enforced dieting and how much of it was due to the girdle Pietrina had created for her. She knew Freddi wore it, if only to keep Pietrina from annoying her. Sometimes Lana suspected Freddi did actually want to look nice but just didn't know how. The only thing Freddi took good care of was her hair, and Lana could understand why. Half the girls at school would kill for hair like that. Curly blond hair that would have been the envy of any supermodel was Freddi's one great physical feature.  
  
Lana suspected that Freddi could have had a boyfriend if she wanted one. She'd heard enough of the guys talking about liking girls with big butts and breasts, and seen quite a few ogling Freddi's chest when they thought she wasn't looking. Half the Sisterhood had encouraged Freddi, but she would have nothing to do with it. She'd muttered something about having trouble with guys going hogging, then thrown Pietrina into the wall when she tried to press the subject.  
  
Lana knew who she wanted for a boyfriend. Kit Pride. There was just one little problem; he was an X-man, and she was part of the Sisterhood. If she ever tried going out with him, the girls would never let her live it down. That meant she was stuck just being coy and hinting that she liked him, but had to be careful to never go out on an actual date with him. She was the leader of the Sisterhood, after all, and she had a reputation to protect.  
  
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